Standard disclaimer applies.

A/N. There's more to writing than drabbles? Maybe.. Perhaps.. Dunno -.-; After a decision to leave fanfinction aside, it became obvious some things kept demanding resolution. So kick me.

On a request, no, a command of, and with a dedication to, rasinah

±Stroll±

As light died out from the sky and last red spots faded from the walls and ceiling, those following the light also dozed away, slowly. Not everyone, however.

Sanzo tucked the gun into his robe and turned to the door.

'Sanzo?' The only other conscious occupant of the room threw a questioning glance over a book.

'I'm going for a stroll.'

'Oh. I certainly do appreciate your effort to notify every local bounty hunter of a certain persuasion of our presence. Very considerate of you to go alone, too.'

'I'd better go and kill some bastards before it becomes too difficult to keep myself from killing you lot.'

Unmoved, Hakkai returned his gaze to the book and remarked, 'At least take Goku along.'

Sanzo stared.

Hakkai shifted a bit, drawing his knees closer in attempt to get more comfortable on the narrow bed. Hakuryuu, sharing the bed with his master, snored softly, but remained still.

'I won't advise you to take Gojyo, though, if you seriously consider starting out early in the morning. His incredible ability to get lost might get better of him, I'm afraid,' he cheerfully continued, turning a page.

Sanzo's eyebrow twitched.

'And Goku will start whining the moment he is woken up. If he could be woken up at all now,' he said in voice hinting at irritation, but without any real power. 'So don't try to get comfy.' In one fluid motion Sanzo picked up Hakkai's green shirt and threw it at its owner. Putting the book aside, the youkai gave the item a thoughtful inspection.

'Are you aware that driver should generally be getting a proper rest?'

'I'm also aware that you wouldn't even try to fall asleep till the last page of this book.'

Hakkai eyed the book wistfully, and then glanced out of the window. No chance of reading outside, it was too dark already. Any other time simultaneous walking and reading for the man who drove a car with his eyes closed would have been a piece of cake.

Noting Hakkai slipping into his shirt, Sanzo walked out of the room, through the hall and into the humid night.

Cobblestones clicked under the heels, the sound muffled by uprising mist. It covered the ground alongside of the road, decorated by intrusion of greenery here and there. Hakkai felt that while he should've been sure there were buildings somewhere just beyond the veil, so far he'd failed to convince himself. Sanzo and him might as well have been standing still in a white current lazily streaming past.

The fog crawled to conquer the road, coiled around their ankles in thick ropes, reaching their knees as the smell of water got stronger. Cobblestones weren't as densely packed here, reluctantly giving way to blades of grass and patches of bare ground.

A turn of the road brought a sudden gust of wind that quickly subsided to a barely noticeable draught. And a dark expanse of stone bridge embedded in milky greyness.

Hakkai slowed his steps.

'Should we go farther?'

Sanzo stopped and turned to raise an eyebrow at him.

'I don't see why not.'

'We made quite a way from the inn.'

'Do you seriously believe they can't live a half an hour without surveillance? You should know that natural surviving instincts can't be eliminated by taming.'

Hakkai caught Sanzo's faint smirk and blinked into a smile of his own.

'Indeed. I need a bit more faith in evolution.'

They continued their way in silence. Weird thing was, with each step the fog ahead seemed to become thicker. While on the riverbank they had been able to see the dark lumps of trees on the other side, halfway over the arch they could barely make out damp cobbles under their feet.

Sanzo halted to reach in his robes for a pack of cigarettes. Flash of the lighter was briefly reflected in a pair of large saucer-like eyes.

Sanzo didn't move.

'Hakkai.'

'Ah?' Hakkai rapidly turned on his heels. He had been looking back on the road. Or, more precisely, had been trying to look back on what had remained of the road.

'Do you see anything in front of me?'

'Erm... No, not really... Ki.. There's a natural flow of the river, that is all.'

The monk made several steps to stand beside the railing and slowly leaned forward. The cigarette slipped from his mouth and fell, tumbling noiselessly, into the mist below.

Plonk.

He started and his eyes darted to the right.

'Sumimasen. I didn't mean to...'

Hakkai stood near the railing, embarrassedly looking at a handful of chipped stone and moss. Leaning over had turned out to be not that good of an idea.

That was when they felt a presence. An overload, a brimful for every sense from the sixth onwards.

Toll... Toll... Toll... rippled-dripped the water. Pay to pass... whispered the wind in unseen trees.

Then was where they saw it. No fog coalescing in a whirlwind, no blinding flashes, no spreading darkness, nothing. There it wasn't, there it was, standing on the patch of cobbles they'd walked upon merely a minute before. Eyes unblinking, irises slowly moving like some odd celestial bodies over the dome of whites. Body large, globular, solid and eerie at the same time, covered with short greenish fur or, rather, light-emitting moss, noted Hakkai in terrified fascination.

And then two events tried to happen in one instant. The creature began to open its mouth, which turned out to be enormous, with a pair of sharp laminae decorating the strong jaws.

And Sanzo began to raise his gun.

Impact of understanding and sudden clairvoyance rendered Hakkai's world to the consistence of treacle.

Swish, hardly any aiming. Higher, higher. Shot.

The world rushed forward in a torrent of motion. Pebbles rattled down from his hand. He darted for Sanzo, grabbing his wrist, and madly dashed to the other side of the bridge. He never looked back to confirm what his mind's eye had seen.

If Hakkai had let his curiosity stall him, however, he might have gained some sickly pleasure in the fact the bullet hadn't hit the target. It had passed right through.

The youkai was running, cutting his skin on reed and crushing nettle and twigs into the muddy ground, running and running to where it wasn't, wondering whether there was an ultimate way to handle legends come true.

Sanzo managed to tuck the revolver back for safekeeping and get a grip on the hem of his robe to hold it up. If he had tripped and they'd got separated in the sticky mist, he felt, a strained wrist would've been the lesser trouble.

A cry resounded between the riverbanks, washing over the escaping companions in a tide of emotions, despair dominating over rage. A howl answered and from one second to another the reed was alive with strips of colour and sound. Dreams and nightmares of the river set free, following their master's call.

Hakkai made a sharp sideturn in a final attempt to get away from the water - none of them had succeeded so far - and almost ran into a wall of driftwood that the current, flooding, piled up year after year. Only then did he let go of the monk to get rid of the obstacle in the fastest possible way.

Sanzo barely kept his balance and dodged an outstream of ki. Greenish glow made the fog seem a kind of firework smoke for a couple of seconds, and then he resumed the neck-breaking run, twitching as pain shot through his wrist once again.

The ground was gradually becoming higher and fog receded, as they left willows behind and were rapidly exchanging muddy sand under their boots for a cover of pine needles. They ran onto a ridge running through the forest, pulling out grass and chunks of turf in a haste climb, over a fallen tree, across a clearing, and then, abruptly, Hakkai stopped.

Propelled forward by forces of inertia, this time Sanzo wasn't able to avoid an impact. The hold on his hand loosened dramatically, as well as his feet's connection to the ground. He briefly managed to see a slope stretching ahead, before it jumped in his face. Rolling down, crashing through, gathering needles on the clothes and bruises on the flesh.

They ended up in a shallow moor, finding a spot a bit drier then a peaty sponge underfoot. A soaked and muddy, tired and dizzy kind of stillness spread and wrapped both.

Sanzo thoughtfully looked at his hands, all scratches and cuts. He couldn't see much, but felt a trickle of blood down his palm and licked it off.

'Human saliva is not antiseptic.' Hakkai absentmindedly remarked. 'Though, now that I think of it, yours should kill all the bacteria in no time.' he added after a short pause.

'What are you talking about?'

'Holiness, of course.'

Shadows stole a pleasure of seeing steam coming out of the monk's ears, but Hakkai easily painted the outline of irritated silence in his mind.

They kept sitting side to side until the sky adsorbed yellow and pink from beyond the horizon.

'Hakkai.'

'Mm?'

'Nothing has happened. We got lost.'

'Ah, yes.' Hakkai allowed himself a sad half-smile, then blinked.

'..Sanzo?'

'What is it?'

'We are not going anywhere today, are we?'

'No. Driver should generally be getting a proper rest, if you're asking about this.'

'I'm glad.'

±Owari±